Shares of Google-parent Alphabet have climbed more than 65% over the past year, marking the strongest performance among the so-called Magnificent Seven. That rally propelled Alphabet’s market capitalization to within a whisker of $4 trillion—an achievement that would make it only the fourth U.S. company ever to cross that threshold. The surge has been driven by robust growth across the company’s core advertising business, which accounts for roughly 75% of total revenue, and accelerating adoption of its Gemini 3 AI model. Institutional investors now cite Alphabet’s custom tensor processing units—developed in partnership with Broadcom—as a viable challenger to incumbents in the AI-chip market, further fueling demand for the stock.

On a recent appearance on a major business broadcast, former Waymo CEO John Krafcik confirmed that the autonomous-vehicle unit has moved to fifth-generation hardware and software. The upgrade integrates new lidar sensors capable of detecting objects at distances up to 250 meters, along with advanced neural-network algorithms that process up to 40 teraflops of data per second. Company safety records show a 30% reduction in disengagements per thousand miles since the previous generation, and internal projections forecast commercial robotaxi operations in three U.S. cities by year-end. Investors view the technology leap as a critical milestone toward scaling Waymo’s ride-hailing services and monetizing the unit’s extensive 100 million-mile driving dataset.

Alphabet’s Cloud division is awaiting a European Commission decision by February 10 on its proposed $32 billion purchase of cybersecurity firm Wiz—Alphabet’s largest-ever deal. The EC filing indicates regulators will either clear the transaction outright, impose concessions, or open a full-scale probe if competitive concerns arise. The U.S. Department of Justice completed its review in November without conditions, but recent antitrust scrutiny in Europe has tightened, particularly for tech mergers. Should the deal receive unconditional approval, Alphabet would bolster its cloud-security offerings at a time when global cyberattacks have transitioned from sporadic incidents to a persistent business risk, according to industry data tracking more than 23,000 organizations affected by supply-chain intrusions over the past year.